You know.. they're totally going to be like.. "Oh.. btw.." <BAZINGA!> "RELEASED!" as we start to be on 2027. Either that, or they'll develop Hostess syndrome and then we'll never have any D20 Twinkies ever again....

Sigh. So this wasn't even supposed to be my project. It wasn't. I didn't come up with it back in the day, and my work on it was supposed to be limited to balance testing and system editing. Somehow it's become my all-consuming albatross in 2012, which makes me more grievously sad than you can possibly imagine.

I have other things I want and need to be doing, but the reality of it is that my job at Crafty is very complicated, and not easily ignored - especially when I have to be involved on the ground floor with other projects that are launching, and occasionally with ongoing projects that misstep. It's been especially bad though this year, as we've been taking several important steps to make sure the company sticks around for years to come - it will - and those steps were neither small nor quick.

At Gen Con I mentioned to a few people that Spellbound is my only current creative effort. That's true, at least on the home front, and had I wound up at home for most of the last two months things would be much further along than they are, but I wasn't - and when the summit hit and I had to trek up to Portland to work on Spycraft Third I couldn't just beg off to hammer on Fantasy Craft stuff, because that's not how it works.

So where are we? Further along than the last milestone update (where I'd finally polished off the blasted spell grids)? Yes. Much further along? Not really. The good news is that except for holidays and one personal weekend at the end of November I'm largely unshackled through the end of the year, and while the business of the company hasn't vanished it does tend to slow down a bit this time of year. Alex and I have also restructured a bit to carve out clearer creative spaces for each other through the week (which in turn will mean some email doesn't get answered very quickly, and some reviews don't happen quite as fast as they could, but so it goes - we need to get this monolithic arcane sprawl off my plate before it drives me to go all Falling Down on my little corner of SoCal).

I'll do my best to update you as it goes, but please be gentle. This book has taken its toll, and I'm not quite as... stable* as I'd prefer.

Thanks for the support, folks - here and over in the Spycraft Third board. I appreciate it. Really do.

Re-reading that post, I appear to have come off somewhat more downtrodden than I intended, but in the interest of maintaining board integrity and also because sometimes it's as much what you say when your fingers are acting on their own as when you're thinking every word through, I'll let it stand.

It is very nice to see the interest is still there. I'd hate to get all the way to the end of this and have the bus pull into an empty station.

I'd hate to get all the way to the end of this and have the bus pull into an empty station.

While not on that kind of scale, I do know what you feel. But impatient though we are, I think the overwhelming majority here understands that this isn't a huge company that can afford entire teams for every product and that it'll be "ready when it's done."

Don't see our blabbering here as discontent, but a show of our continued support. We're cheering in the stands while you push your car through the finish line

I prefer my Jameson with ice or with Champagne. (The Regimental Cocktail is two parts Champagne with one part Jameson. (Prosecco and sparkling whites also work, drier tends to be better, but extra dry is a bit too dry, YMMV)

Thanks for the support, folks - here and over in the Spycraft Third board. I appreciate it. Really do.

Re-reading that post, I appear to have come off somewhat more downtrodden than I intended, but in the interest of maintaining board integrity and also because sometimes it's as much what you say when your fingers are acting on their own as when you're thinking every word through, I'll let it stand.

It is very nice to see the interest is still there. I'd hate to get all the way to the end of this and have the bus pull into an empty station.

Dunno about the others, but the interest is still here. Spellbound and Gear of Ages are the two books I want the most. Even more than Spycraft 3.